1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to manufacturing and, in particular, to manufacturing of vehicles. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for assembling vehicles in a manufacturing environment.
2. Background
The assembly of an aircraft is an extremely complex process. Hundreds of thousands of parts may be assembled for an aircraft.
The assembly of an aircraft may involve manufacturing different parts of the aircraft in geographically diverse locations. These different parts may then be finally assembled in a single location. For example, different portions of a fuselage of a composite aircraft may be assembled in different locations and flown to a central location where the final assembly line is located. Additionally, other parts such as engines, auxiliary power units, seats, computer systems, line replaceable units, or other components of the aircraft may be shipped to this final location for assembly to form the assembled aircraft.
The assembly of the different parts involves assigning tasks to different operators. The assignment of these tasks may take the form of shop order instances. Each shop order instance may include instructions and an identification of parts for a particular assembly in the aircraft.
Shop floor operators may have a need to identify positions of parts on the aircraft in order to follow assembly instructions described in shop order instances. These positions are ones relative to the particular aircraft being assembled and are defined with respect to a reference coordinate system, such as airplane coordinates. In some cases, both the position and the orientation are needed. In other cases, only the position may be required. Further, “location,” as used herein, is the position and may also include the orientation, or angular rotation, of the part. Currently, operators assigned a task to assemble a part for the aircraft may look at paper copies of the blueprints of the aircraft to determine where to perform tasks to install or assemble parts for the aircraft. These paper copies may provide some guidance to an operator, but often times they may be difficult to understand and may not include sufficient information.
In some cases, the operator may view a computer-aided design model of the aircraft using a computer-aided design software system. These types of systems, however, require training and experience to maneuver through the model of the aircraft.
For example, an operator of the computer-aided design software system often uses aircraft coordinates to identify locations in, on, or near the aircraft. Aircraft coordinates have an origin relative to some location in, on, or near the aircraft. Further, when traversing through the model, positions may be defined using aircraft Cartesian coordinates. Of course, any suitable coordinate system may be used. Additionally, orientations may be defined using angular rotations, such as α, β, and γ rotations. These aircraft coordinates, however, are often not helpful to an operator that is assigned a task in a work instruction description called a shop order instance. The aircraft coordinates may need to be translated into action locations for the operator. Additionally, the model does not provide the operator an idea of what parts may or may not be already installed in the aircraft for performing a particular task.
As a result, operators may take more time than needed, may need additional training, or both to view locations in the aircraft where tasks in a shop order instance are to be performed. This additional time or training may increase the time or expense needed to assemble an aircraft.
With respect to positions of parts, a similar issue is present with respect to maintenance. For example, an operator may need to locate a particular part in an aircraft for inspection, replacement, or other types of maintenance. Finding the position of this part in an aircraft may be challenging, depending on experience and training of the operator. As a result, the time and expense needed to perform maintenance on an aircraft may be greater than desired.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.